Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Ever get the feeling you're being cheated?

What's usually a routine vote on the Republican National Convention's rules slate descended into chaos on Monday afternoon as anti-Donald Trump delegates tried to force a state-by-state roll call vote.

The push for a roll call vote was viewed as a last stand for anti-Trump forces, who said they had
a majority of signatures from at least nine delegations, more than
necessary to force the vote. But the convention chair eventually ruled
that the #NeverTrump crew's petition wasn't sufficient to force such a
vote and the rules were adopted by voice vote.

All that happened was a brief moment during the rules adoption where the NeverTrumpers tried to get a chance to say NeverTrump one more time in an official roll call. They still would have lost but it didn't matter. It made for a fun few minutes of shouting on CNN. But it did not and was never going to amount to anything. The episode was a pale imitation of the actual fight the Republicans had at the convention in 1976, but none of the overly excitable CNN commentators seemed to have even that much perspective.

It's hard to blame them. They're as bored as we are. And, apart from the debates, the Republican Convention is the last chance to get any semi-unscripted entertainment out of this rapidly deflating election. So here we are.

It's a nice thought to consider that the Trump Convention might actually be an elaborate parody of the farcical product launch that is any other major party nominating convention. Unfortunately, it's probably not that. It's probably just a trainwreck.

Tuesday evening, chief NRA lobbyist Chris Cox
appeared at the Republican National Convention to speak about guns, guns
and guns, which was kind of strange, really, given the night’s official
theme was “Make America Work Again.”

A paper schedule handed out by the party Tuesday morning may offer
some insight: It, like the convention’s official app, lists an entirely different Chris Cox, the former congressman who once chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

We heard from Willie Robertson, a star of "Duck Dynasty," actor Scott
Baio and model and soap opera star Antonio Sabato, Jr., who CNN
helpfully noted once appeared in an underwear ad that hung from Trump
Tower

There's no way they'd intentionally just have an old man yell and spit un-self-consciously.

Right? I mean, it's true that this whole event looks like a performance art send-up of your typical political convention. But that's also been an apt description of this entire campaign.

Anyway it's been hard to say what's real and what's a joke for a very long time now.

CLEVELAND — The Republican Party woke up to a cascade of finger-pointing
and confusion on Tuesday as the Trump campaign was rocked by
accusations that parts of Melania Trump’s convention speech had been
cribbed from the one that Michelle Obama delivered to Democrats in 2008.